My Three Sons - Color or Black and White episodes?

I like Gilligan but it was in terms of the music, and the writing and direction. (The earlier B&W were a bit sillier, something creator,producer, and theme-song writer Sherwood Schwartz ("The Brady Bunch") admitted himself, especially regaridng the very earliest.) Someone said on "The Flinstones" in http://www.jumptheshark.com. about the inferiooir color 'Stones but they were always in color..

These stayed in black and white
"The Patty Duke Show" (1963-66)
"The Donna Reed Show" (1958-66)
"Car 54, Where are you?" (1961-63)
"Sing Along With Mitch" (1961-64)
"Ozzie and Harriet" (1952-66)
"Father Knows Best" (1954-60)

A Few shows like "Flicka" and "Disneyland" were shot in color (even Technicolor back then for some) but most stayed B&W,. Note that
three of out the six I noted as exclusively B&W stayed thru 1966 when
more things got "in color".

 

Is it possible that the original network airings for the first couple of seasons were in black and white?

 

Yup.

afaik, Walt Disney's was filmed in color from the start, anticipating the change. Unfortunately over the years the color elements have been lost for a great many episodes, leaving us to assume it was filmed in B&W and later changed to color. That was a purty Living Color peacock; would've made up for the Living Stereo nipper if they'd teamed up eh?

 

Count me as another "old school" fan of the B & W episodes of My Three Sons. I never liked the Uncle Charley character. He was way too cranky.

 

The Dick Van Dyke Show was never shown in color, either. Like some of the above shows, Dick Van Dyke Show ended before the big push to have all networks shows broadcast in color.

 

THE PATTY DUKE SHOW ended BECAUSE they didn't want to spend the money to upgrade to color.

Woulda been cool to see them in full blazin' color. Oh well.

 

Here's an example of DIsney Color which we never got to see back in "the day":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9YQggpFnPQ

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Hoffman
I haven't seen one of those in 35 years. Is it true that Fred filmed all of his shots for the entire season in like three weeks so he could lounge the rest of the year? That must have been a heck of a continuity problem..


That's a bit of an exaggeration, but that's basically it. His contract stipulated that he work only 65 days in two segments with a 10 week hiatus in between. This was the way they worked for the whole series run.


TVLand ran shows a year or so ago called TVLand Confidential. "Robbie" and "Chip" said that with Fred often not there, they spoke their lines to a broom. Their lines and Fred's would then be edited together.

 

The black & white My Three Sons episodes were better scripted and paced than the color ones (Ernie and Uncle Charley got on my nerves), but strangely, I loved me some Dodie (Dawn Lyn). She always threw a few good zingers at the grown-ups or her step-brothers - she was far superior to Cindy Brady in that aspect. Try catching Dawn "Dodie" Lyn in a weird movie called "Devil Times Five". Her brother Leif Garrett co-stars. 1974. Dawn & Leif are disturbed children on the loose in a secluded mountain cabin resort. It was also known as "PeopleToys" and "The Horrible House On The Hill." And who's old enough to remember her from that classic ABC After School Special, "Five Finger Discount", where Dawn's pre-teen friends peer-pressure her into a life of petty crime at the mall?!

The Petticoat Junction DVD with the black and white episodes are key, particularly thanks to sex kitten Jeannine Riley - but they need to release a "Best of" featuring the choice color ones (especially the one where the girls all go-go dance in the lobby of the Shady Rest hotel).

 

Not MANY, only the last season of 26 rarely seen episodes.

 

I'm bumping this thread to ask: What do y'all think of this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6fnoX0NwiQ&feature=related

 

That's a pretty bad song.

 

Which is why all the black and white episodes have replacement music on the DVDs.

 

Ha. Most people don't give a damn about music replacement in TV series.

 

I don't know what people you know but amongst my collector friends who are actually into this stuff, we all care very much. That's why I'm just going with transfers from my off-air records from Nick at Nite.

 

I kinda like it myself, I think it sounds like 1962-era Jan and Dean, only not quite. Don Grady is a good singer, and I like the song itself, but the backing track is not quite as hard-edged, for lack of a better term, like they would have done it (think of the production values on 'Linda' applied to this song, and see if that makes sense).

I remember My Three Sons with the color episodes, haven't ever seen a black and white one all the way through.

 

Never have seen this show...

 

OK by me.

 

I always liked the B&W episodes of "My Three Sons" best. It is really too bad that they couldn't keep up the quality AND add color, but TV was always about selling advertising, so the budgets were necessarily limited and something had to give. Of course, that's no excuse for poor script writing if you ask me.

I agree with all of the other comments about shows being better in B&W than in color with one notable exception: Bewitched, I have always preferred Dick York as Darren regardless of whether or not the photography is color or B&W. Once he left the show it went straight downhill, but I still watched because I was in love with Elizabeth Montgomery.

 

I just saw a bunch of My Three Sons DVD's at my local SAMs club store. They had the first few seasons, black and white. Do these have replacement soundtracks? Should they be avoided? They were not that expensive.

 

Yes they have replacement soundtracks.

 

But you would only know if had every episode etched in your brain or if someone told you.

 

Not true. I hadn't watched The Fugitive since I recorded them off A&E in the mid-90s yet when they put them out with the horrible replacement music, it was immediately evident. Sorry, but I don't think its too hard to tell the difference between an orchestra and a cheesy synthesizer.